Singularity University Co-founder Peter Diamandis says that the power entrepreneurs have to solve problems is greater than ever before. He says that the convergence of technologies is transforming business models and that the world is not just changing faster than ever before, it’s accelerating.
Peter Diamandis, Co-Founder & Chairman, Singularity University in a recent talk:
The World is Not Just Changing Fast, It’s Accelerating
We truly are living during the most extraordinary time ever in human history. Here’s the challenge, I want to give you a sense of how fast the world is changing but have you understand that it’s accelerating. What does that mean? The title of my next book, which I’m writing with Steven Kotler, is The Future is Faster Than You Think. There is an acceleration that’s actually accelerating the acceleration. In physics, that’s called jerk, but that’s not a very good name.
The reality is that people have no idea how fast the world is truly changing. We have ideas from our limited point of view if you’re the 3D printing scientist or an AI scientist or engineer, but what we don’t realize is the convergence of all of these technologies that are transforming business models. Every single company here, every single walk of life, every single way that we earn our living, is going to change not in 30 years or 20 years but this decade.
Acceleration of the Rate of Innovation
I’d like to give you a sense of why that is, both to have the excitement about that, but also the agility you’re going to need to sort of surf on top of the tsunami versus being crushed by it. When I talk about acceleration, it’s acceleration of the rate of innovation. What is innovation? Innovation isn’t just a better algorithm.
Innovation today is the exchange of ideas between individuals. I have an idea and I share with my buddy Naveen, he builds on the idea and shares it back with me. This is conversation that is back and forth and we can actually see this mathematically. As people moved out of the rural areas into the cities, into the coffee shops and the density of their conversations began to increase, so did the innovation occur.
The Most Extraordinary Time Ever in Human History
We truly are living during the most extraordinary times ever in human history. My challenge for you is to avoid complacency. There’s no way for us to truly fathom how fast the world is changing. Understand that the power that we have as individuals is extraordinary. We have the power of kings and queens. We have the power to solve any problem we want.
You have access to more computational power than any time in human history. You do, each of you do. You could spin up a thousand processor cores on AWS if you wanted to. You have access to more knowledge, more capital, there is nothing that you don’t have access to.
Your Massively Transformative Purpose
Ultimately, it’s your personal conviction. What we call your massively transformative purpose or your moonshot of what you’re going to do. The world is getting faster. The power that you have to change the world is getting greater. We are alive during a period of time that the world’s biggest problems or the world’s biggest business opportunities. For those of you who are the billionaires in the room, your mission is not to climb the Forbes list, it’s to discover in you what is the world’s biggest problem that you want to slay, that you want to change, that you want to put an end to because you can.
All of us have created tremendous networks of people or wealth, that’s why you’re here for one reason or another. How do you use the talent and the treasures and the technology you can access to solve problems that inspire you, that give you a purpose in life, that wake you up, that scare you a little bit?
An Entrepreneur is Someone Who Slays It
One of the things that gives me the greatest hope for our lives today is that an entrepreneur is someone who finds a great problem and slays that problem. The number of entrepreneurs is exploding and the power those entrepreneurs have to solve problems is greater than ever before. So I do believe that we’re heading towards a world of abundance, a world in which you can create abundance for all, where there will be a world where no man, woman, and child goes without.
Yes, there’ll be a world of haves and super-haves, but as long as there is a world where everybody has access to the world’s best education, healthcare, knowledge, that’s a world that we at Singularity University want to work towards. The world is changing fast and as I like to say, don’t blink.